Hezakya Newz & Films

HALLOWEEN: "THE MOST EXCELLENT ADVENTURES OF MICHAEL MYERS"

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Hezakya Newz & Films

HALLOWEEN: "THE MOST EXCELLENT ADVENTURES OF MICHAEL MYERS"

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Hezakya Newz & Films

(1917) Blackface At Great Lakes Naval Training Center

Naval apprentices giving a minstrel show at Great Lakes Naval Training Station, text on the image reads: Jackie Minstrel Show, Chicago, Illinois, 1917.

(Photo by Chicago Sun-Times/Chicago Daily News collection/Chicago History Museum/Getty Images)

Established in 1911 on 165 acres of Lake Michigan shoreline, the Great Lakes Naval Training Station (now Naval Station Great Lakes) was conceived as a modest Midwest boot camp to train up to 1,500 apprentice seamen, far from the East Coast's congested facilities.

By early 1917, however, the station was a sleepy outpost with just 39 brick buildings and a peacetime staff. That all changed on April 6, 1917, when the United States declared war on Germany, thrusting America into World War I.

Overnight, Great Lakes transformed into the Navy's primary induction and training hub for the Midwest, swelling to over 50,000 recruits by war's end. Tents sprouted across the grounds to house the influx, and hasty construction added barracks, drill fields, and support structures.

Recruits were mostly young men from farms, factories, and cities across the heartland—underwent rigorous 8- to 12-week programs in seamanship, gunnery, signaling, and drill.

But amid the discipline, morale-boosting entertainment was essential.

The Navy, like the Army, encouraged amateur theatricals to combat boredom and homesickness. Great Lakes boasted a theater seating 2,000, where shows ranged from lectures to films.

The YMCA, embedded on base, organized many events, including musical revues. In this environment, the "Jackie Minstrel Show" emerged as a grassroots production, likely staged by recruits themselves under officer supervision, to entertain fellow sailors during off-hours.

Today, this image is a jarring artifact of systemic racism embedded in American institutions.

Blackface minstrelsy wasn't mere "entertainment"—it dehumanized Black people, perpetuating tropes that justified segregation, lynching, and disenfranchisement.

During World War I, the U.S. military was segregated; Black sailors like those in the 12th Regiment (formed at Great Lakes in 1917 for public works) were barred from combat roles and confined to menial labor.

White recruits performing these caricatures reinforced white supremacy, even as the war abroad fought for democracy.

President Woodrow Wilson, a segregationist, infamously screened Birth of a Nation (a blackface epic glorifying the Ku Klux Klan) at the White House in 1915 and enjoyed a minstrel show aboard the USS George Washington post-Armistice in 1919.

At Great Lakes, the irony deepened: the station trained Black stewards and messmen, yet shows like this excluded or mocked them.

Post-war, minstrelsy lingered in the Navy—into the 1920s on ships like the USS *Bridgeport*—before fading amid civil rights pressures.

By World War II, it resurfaced in some units but faced growing backlash.

It underscores how entertainment masked prejudice, which traces minstrelsy's roots in white fascination and fear of Black culture.

Today, Naval Station Great Lakes—still the Navy's sole boot camp—emphasizes diversity, with Recruit Training Command integrating anti-bias education.

Yet artifacts like this remind us: progress demands confronting the past, bayonets and all.

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Hezakya Newz & Films

(1910) BLACKFACE BASEBALL GAME

PULLMAN, WASHINGTON

(Original Caption) In Pullman, Washington, a most incorrect game of baseball is in progress with University of Washington seniors playing their professors in blackface.

(Photo by Mark Rucker/Transcendental Graphics, Getty Images)

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(1940s) American Students writing.

Creator: Unknown.

(Photo by Heritage Art/Heritage Images via Getty Images)

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Hezakya Newz & Films

(1940s) Elderly Lady Who Lives On Lamont Street
Washington, D.C. Elderly lady who lives on Lamont Street, N.W..

Artist Gordon Parks.

(Photo by Heritage Art/Heritage Images/via Getty Images)

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(1915) Sorority girls group shot

College age women pose for a group shot, some in black face.

(Photo by Kirn Vintage Stock/Corbis via Getty Images)

Ero Alphian was the original name of the Beta Theta chapter of the Alpha Xi Delta sorority at Michigan State University.

Key facts about the Ero Alphian Literary Society:

Founding:

It was established on May 15, 1904, by 14 women at Michigan Agricultural College, which is now Michigan State University.

Mission:

The founders sought to develop well-rounded individuals by combining literary and technical education with social cooperation and friendship.

Transformation: In October 1934, the Ero Alphian Literary Society became the Beta Theta Chapter of Alpha Xi Delta.

Legacy: It was one of the first three sororities formed at Michigan State.

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Hezakya Newz & Films

(1950) Baseball Fans at Ebbets Field

(Original Caption) Dodgers vs. Phillies. Ebbets Field.

Brooklyn, New York

Standing room only, but still happy.

October 1, 1950.

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(1950s) Portrait of an unidentified woman as she stands, arms crossed, behind the counter of a soda fountain.

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

(Photo by Charles "Teenie" Harris/Carnegie Museum of Art/Getty Images)

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(1950s) As a man reads behind a desk, a woman sits beside him, a writing pad in her hands, and smiles at the camera.

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

(Photo by Charles "Teenie" Harris/Carnegie Museum of Art/Getty Images)

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